Difficult to retain Maths, Science teachers in village schools: Vice President Venkaiah Naidu

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu said on Saturday that it was becoming increasingly difficult to retain good science and mathematics teachers in village schools and these subjects were not being offered in the higher classes in such schools.

He said such imbalance in school education should be corrected in order to develop scientific temper in the society. "It is becoming increasingly difficult to find and retain good mathematics and science teachers in village schools. Science and mathematics are not even offered as subjects for want of teachers in higher classes in these schools," Naidu said.

He was addressing a function here in connection with the inauguration of 100 digital classrooms in Madhya Pradesh.

"This imbalance in school education must be corrected to develop scientific temper in our society," Naidu said, adding, fortunately, digital tools that can improve quality of education in our schools are present. "With digital classrooms equipped with multimedia environment, abstract scientific concepts, like configuration of atoms or biological cells, movement of electromagnetic waves, can be easily understood," he said.

Naidu said three-dimensional multimedia digital projection can make children understand a complex mathematical equation or a scientific concept very easily.

The vice president said technology, more so digital technology, by itself has a great democratising impact on the society. It has delivered the power of knowledge to people on their smart phones, he said. "I believe you will also be teaching English to the students.

It is a welcome step. However, do take care to ensure that the child learns his or her mother tongue first," the vice president said. Naidu also said education and skill development should be part of all education programmes. "I am hopeful that soon you will be able to expand your footprint and area of activity to cover 1,000 schools in rural and semi-urban areas.

You will be able to bridge the knowledge and skill gap between rural and urban education," he told the gathering. Under this project, launched by Naidu, 100 classrooms in rural areas of the state are being transformed digitally with the help of NGO Muskan Dreams Foundation (MDF) and Hindustan Zinc Limited (HZL).

Naidu appreciated the achievement of MDF's team of 250 volunteers to educate young boys in Gwalior, Bhopal and Indore districts.

"It is heartening to learn that these 100 rural schools will transform the learning experience of some 15,000 students and 300 teachers," he added.